Beware these all-too-common IT blunders before they derail your career.

20 surefire IT mistakes

Cost overruns, missed deadlines, lost jobs -- we all like to think we learn from mistakes, whether our own or others’. And while the technical landscape advances quickly, one thing remains the same: IT's capacity to fall prey to misguided practices, given the complexity of the responsibilities involved.

So in the spirit of "forewarned is forearmed," we bring you 20 mistakes IT managers would do well to avoid. Names have been changed to protect the guilty, but the lessons learned are plain to see. Don’t get caught falling prey to these all-too-common blunders.